Friday, January 30, 2009

This lady Common Burying Beetle (nicrophorus marginatus) looks exhausted to me, with all those mites hitching a ride, but according to the Insect expert at the St. Louis Zoo Insectarium, she is used to it! Both the mites and the beetle are fed wax and meal worms. The mites dislodge for their meal. They get back on when they are finished. They are waiting for her to mate and eat her HUGE deceased bird. (They eat some of that too). In the meantime, they just hang on.

Monday, January 19, 2009

This is ME! I am using my 400/2.8 lens and tripod with a Wimberly head on it. (It balances the lens). It's 20 degrees and I am photographing the family of Pelicans on the Mississippi that you see below.